We finally have our home energy use where we want it!

[CTScott]

That's awesome!

I have been monitoring my energy use for the past six months. I installed a system on my main panel that lets me see the instantaneous usage on any circuit. Just with paying more attention and replacing some older appliances we have cut our usage by 25%. We still use way too much though, as both my wife and I work out of our home. Geothermal for heat/AC and solar photovoltaic are on our short list of home improvement projects.

[Lafiro]

Originally Posted by CTScott

That's awesome!

I have been monitoring my energy use for the past six months. I installed a system on my main panel that lets me see the instantaneous usage on any circuit. Just with paying more attention and replacing some older appliances we have cut our usage by 25%. We still use way too much though, as both my wife and I work out of our home. Geothermal for heat/AC and solar photovoltaic are on our short list of home improvement projects.

Once again I come to you for a question lol.

What system are you using? Would like to
know what in the house is using all this electricity. I swear my sister has never had the tv off in her room even during the night ever. Since it does serve as a radio as well. My mom defends her saying that's not possible. But audio recordings at 3am any random night and constant high electric bills tell me and my dad otherwise.

Having a system like the one you described would finally solve our questions and allow us to put some lines on timers hopefully.

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by Lafiro

Once again I come to you for a question lol.

What system are you using? Would like to
know what in the house is using all this electricity. I swear my sister has never had the tv off in her room even during the night ever. Since it does serve as a radio as well. My mom defends her saying that's not possible. But audio recordings at 3am any random night and constant high electric bills tell me and my dad otherwise.

Having a system like the one you described would finally solve our questions and allow us to put some lines on timers hopefully.

I started with a device from http://www.theenergydetective.com/index.html.

Their system has one set of sensors that clamp on the input wires to your electrical panel. It then transmits the data through the house wiring to their receiver unit.

[BailOut]

Originally Posted by CTScott

I started with a device from http://www.theenergydetective.com/index.html.

Their system has one set of sensors that clamp on the input wires to your electrical panel. It then transmits the data through the house wiring to their receiver unit.

That's a great tool for measuring the overall electricity usage for your home, but there's a much cheaper and easier way to get individual device measurements:

The Kill-A-Watt

That's what I used to audit our home, then waited for each month's power bill to see how our all-in per day and per month kWh usage was measuring up.

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by BailOut

That's a great tool for measuring the overall electricity usage for your home, but there's a much cheaper and easier way to get individual device measurements:

The Kill-A-Watt

That's what I used to audit our home, then waited for each month's power bill to see how our all-in per day and per month kWh usage was measuring up.

Agreed.

I got totally carried away with it and built my own system, based on the T.E.D. technology where I can measure the current draw on every circuit in our panels.

[Lafiro]

Originally Posted by CTScott

Agreed.

I got totally carried away with it and built my own system, based on the T.E.D. technology where I can measure the current draw on every circuit in our panels.

Please explain how you managed that please. Maybe a picture and how much all the equipment ended up costing you. Thanks

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by Lafiro

Please explain how you managed that please. Maybe a picture and how much all the equipment ended up costing you. Thanks

It's all behind my breaker panel, but I used 12 sets of their clip on current sensors (pictured below) fed into a circuit board which rectifies the low voltage AC signal from the probes into DC and then feeds them into ADCs of an array of microcontrollers. Each sensor can measure the current flow of one wire, so two are required for each 220 volt circuit and one for each 110 volt circuit. By the time all was said and done I dropped about $1000 on the project.



http://www.theenergydetective.com/store/accessories/


Here are some links to some similar DIYprojects:
http://jarv.org/pwrmon.shtml


http://blog.makezine.com/archive/200...sage_moni.html